--- /dev/null
+# A Hug is Symmetric
+
+An embrace is warm when two are pulled together.
+A one arm hug is a patronizing squeeze that makes
+for a (bad) photo op.
+
+This little blog post is my > 140 response to my
+new friend [@dberkholz][dberkholz]'s post
+[The Story Of Data: Whither the GPL? Why we don’t need it anymore][dberkholz_story]. I met Donnie at [FOSDEM][fosdem] this year
+just after he joined [RedMonk][redmonk] -- the analyst
+firm that is essential for anyone in software
+development to follow. (Full Disclosure: RedMonk and Informatique, Inc.
+do not have any business affiliation).
+
+While I acknowledge that permissive licensing has become
+fashionable I think it is a grave disservice to suggest that
+restrictive licensing in FLOSS is withering, unneeded or for the
+uneducated.
+
+This recent dust up is a result of an ongoing meme
+of "the Decline of the GPL" started last year by
+[Matt Aslett][aslett_decline]. To which fuel was added
+by a recent [BlackDuck][blackduck] analysis also asserting the
+the decline of the GPL. In precious few seconds of research
+I was unable to to find the BlackDuck report itself, but
+only [mention][mention] of [it][it]. Ultimately the approach
+of the BlackDuck study is one of the problems. The data and methodology
+have not been made available for peer review -- the basis
+of the scientific method which defines progress in every
+academic discipline.
+
+During our first [Legal Issues DevRoom][fosdem_legal_issues] at FOSDEM
+we had several talks touching on the impact of software
+(and other artifact) licensing on FLOSS. Of special note:
+John Sullivan, Executive
+Director of the Free Software Foundation gave a talk "Is copyleft
+being framed?" and Richard Fontana, Red Hat's Open Source Licensing
+and Patent Counsel gave a talk, "The (possible) decline of the GPL, and what to do about it". Slides for these and other talks are available
+[[here|/fosdem/LegalIssuesDevRoom/Speakers]]. Sullivan's data
+and methodology are available for review and suggest that
+the use of GPL is vibrant.
+
+I do hope that my friend and former Sun colleague [Rich Sands][richsands] --
+who is now at BlackDuck -- can help shed some light on their analysis.
+
+But I'm not here to quibble about the data. I want to talk
+directly to the assertions made from the data.
+
+## 1. Compliance is complicated
+
+In this era of continuous development and continuous
+deployment powered by tools like the uber awesome [Jenkins][jenkins]
+you can't really say with a straight face that making
+a tarball and publishing it somewhere is hard.
+Even in the embedded space there are tools like [Yocto][yocto]
+make delivering "Complete and Corresponding Source" just
+one of the build products.
+
+For the massive, commercial enterprise which is Java™
+Oracle manages to publish the [source][openjdk_source]
+code for [OpenJDK][openjdk]. Under the GPL.
+And Oracle publishes it from a tightly intermingled source
+base comprising open as well as closed, proprietary components.
+
+## 2. The collaborative development model is really all you need
+
+Bruce Perens was right: collaboration is better. Yet collaboration
+is necessary, but not sufficient to build a community.
+As we have become more familiar with FLOSS models it has
+become increasingly clearly that copyright assignment or licensing
+agreements that put a corporation in asymmetric control
+of a codebase does not foster the healthiest communities.
+
+When inbound == outbound licensing and everyone is symmetric
+footing collaboration *and* contribution thrive.
+
+[Simon Phipps][webmink], also a friend and former Sun colleague,
+has written about the health of projects such
+as [Libre Office][libreoffice] and assessing the health of
+FLOSS [governance][scorecard].
+
+## 3. Commercial products == proprietary products
+
+"Not to mention that copyleft licenses make it much harder to build
+proprietary products". Well maybe we should start with understanding
+there might be a difference between building products and making a
+biz model around them vs. the licensing of said products.
+
+With Red Hat hitting the milestone of $1 [billion][rht_billion] in revenue
+I think we can put to rest the question, "can you make money with
+open source?" Certainly Red Hat has some proprietary licensed
+products, but the crux or their business model is based on
+restrictively licensed, copyleft software. Red Hat invests
+an enormous amount of developer time to give back to the community...
+And apparently they are not suffering for it. Apparently
+this isn't too complicated for them. And apparently the
+bottom line is doing just fine, thank you.
+
+## 4. Restrictive licensing doesn't matter in Cloud
+
+If anything the rise of "Cloud Computing" drives the
+[need][need] for an [updated approach][agpl_cloud] to restrictive licensing.
+This was the real motivation behind creating
+the [AGPL][agpl]. Why is this? It's because traditionally
+restrictive licensing kicks in when the software is *delivered*.
+In web services you get data, but not software (in any form).
+
+A great deal has been written about copyleft in the cloud era...
+Since Donnie's post included "Data" I think it's worth
+mentioning the [Freedom to Leave][freedom_to_leave] and
+the [Franklin Street Statement][franklin_st].
+
+*(Secret: data is more valuable than code :) )*
+
+## 5. You can't build a business on restrictive software
+
+Jeremy Allison has clearly articulated why the [GPLv3
+is essential][gpl_samba] for the commercial Samba marketplace to
+thrive. He talks about symmetry providing a necessary
+level playing field (and he spoke about this [recently][lp_2012]).
+
+Evan Prodromou has built the StatusNet business on
+AGPL'd software and is selling the [Decentralized Social
+Web][statusnet] into Enterprises.
+
+And NoSQL all star, MongoDB, is [licensed under the AGPL][mongodb_agpl]
+and the company behind it, [10gen][10gen], seems to be doing just fine.
+
+## Work with Me
+
+So whether or not the GPL is in decline (or not) only
+scratches the surface of the how the FLOSS revolution has [transformed
+information technology][how_linux] in the past 20 years.
+I bet the that Story of Data in the next 20 years will
+tell us that symmetric collaboration is the big win.
+
+Ultimately the key thing is to remember that permissively
+licensed software is also Free Software.
+
+[dberkholz]: https://twitter.com/#!/dberkholz
+[dberkholz_story]: http://redmonk.com/dberkholz/2012/04/05/whither-the-gpl-why-we-dont-need-it-anymore/
+[fosdem]: http://fosdem.org/2012/
+[redmonk]: http://redmonk.com/
+[aslett_decline]: http://blogs.the451group.com/opensource/2011/06/06/the-trend-towards-permissive-licensing/
+[blackduck]: http://www.blackducksoftware.com/
+[mention]: http://upsilon.cc/~zack/blog/posts/2012/02/gpl_d_debian_software_skew/
+[it]: http://techrights.org/2012/02/20/gpl-whole-story/
+[fosdem_legal_issues]: http://fosdem.org/2012/schedule/track/legal_issues_devroom
+[richsands]: https://twitter.com/#!/richsands
+[jenkins]: http://jenkins-ci.org/
+[yocto]: https://wiki.yoctoproject.org/wiki/Yocto_1.2_Overall_Test_Plan#Compliance_Test.28Covered_in_Fullpass_Test.29
+[openjdk]: http://openjdk.java.net/
+[openjdk_source]: http://download.java.net/openjdk/jdk7u2/
+[webmink]: https://twitter.com/#!/webmink
+[libreoffice]: http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2012/02/libreoffice-founbdation-symbolises-maturity/index.htm
+[scorecard]: http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2011/02/open-by-rule-progress-report/index.htm
+[rht_billion]: http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2012/03/red-hat-hits-a-billion-dollars-in-revenue-a-milestone-for-open-source.ars
+[need]: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-affero-gpl.html
+[agpl_cloud]: https://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/new-cloud-applications-drive-popularity-agpl-
+[agpl]: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl.html
+[freedom_to_leave]: http://webmink.com/essays/freedom-to-leave/
+[franklin_st]: http://autonomo.us/2008/07/franklin-street-statement/
+[how_linux]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVpbFMhOAwE&list=UUfX55Sx5hEFjoC3cNs6mCUQ&index=1&feature=plcp
+[lp_2012]: http://libreplanet.org/wiki/LibrePlanet2012/Schedule
+[gpl_samba]: http://faif.us/cast/2011/may/10/0x0F/
+[statusnet]: http://schedule.sxsw.com/2012/events/event_IAP11746
+[mongodb_agpl]: http://blog.mongodb.org/post/103832439/the-agpl
+[10gen]: http://www.10gen.com/news
+
+[[!tag FOSDEM LegalIssues GPL AGPL data OpenJDK RedMonk]]
projects / wiki.git / blobdiff